Heinrich Bruening

Heinrich Bruening (26 November 1885-30 March 1970) was Chancellor of the Weimar Republic from 30 March 1930 to 30 May 1932, succeeding Hermann Mueller and preceding Franz von Papen. He was a leader of the conservative Center Party of Germany.

Biography
Heinrich Bruening was born in Muenster, Westphalia, German Empire on 26 November 1885. He emerged as a leader of the Christian trade union movement in 1920, and he became an MP for the Center Party of Germany in 1924 before establishing himself as a financial expert. As Chancellor from 1930 to 1932, he ruled largely with the help of exceptional legislation from President Paul von Hindenburg, against the parliamentary majority. This enabled him to pursue a revision of the Treaty of Versailles with much greater ruthlessness, accepting a worsening economic crisis in order to convince the Allies of the impossibility of fulfilling Germany's reparations obligations. He was ultimately successful in this aim, but he reduced the power of the Reichstag considerably, a first step in the curtailment of democracy which was a prelude to Hitler's rise to power. In 1934, he fled to the Netherlands, and he settled in the United States in 1935, becoming a professor at Harvard in 1939. He died in Norwich, Vermont in 1970 at the age of 84.